Baffle unit



1969 w. K. H. GREGORI 3,420,023

BAFFLE UNIT Filed Aug. 5, 1966 INVENTOR. WERNER K. H. GREGORI ATTORNEYS United States Patent 3,420,023 BAFFLE UNIT Werner K. H. Gregori, Oakville, Ontario, Canada, assignor, by direct and mesne assignments, to Roher- Bohm Limited, Nassau, Bahamas Filed Aug. 3, 1966, Ser. No. 569,864 Claims priority, appligation Canada, June 2, 1966,

61,886 US. or. 52-309 Claims Int. Cl. E04c 1/10; E04b 2/28 use of electricity in the heating of buildings and the desirability of providing individual thermostats in each room it has become important to provide adequate insulation in the walls between each room of a building. The unit which is filled with polystyrene is pre-assembled in the form of a hollow shell and polystyrene beads are placed in the hollow shell and then expanded to completely fill the hollow shell. This practice produces a unit which is completely filled with insulation but the insulation adds very little to the strength of the unit. Difficulty has been experienced in determining the correct quantity of beads required to fill the shell and it has been found that too much insulation causes the panel unit to bulge outwardly while too little insulation permits the Walls to collapse inwardly. Furthermore as the unit is completely filled with insulation difliculty is experienced in attempting to run electrical wiring and other utilities on the inside of these panel units.

It is an object of the present invention to provide an improved wall panel unit for use in the construction of partitions or curtain walls.

It is a further object of this invention to provide an improved core construction for wall panel units.

It is a still further object of this invention to provide an improved Wall panel unit which is inexpensive to manufacture and easy to install in its required location.

With these and other objects in view the present invention relates to a pre-assembled interior wall panel unit for use in the building industry. The panel unit comprises a pair of spaced wall board panels and an interior core. The interior core is formed of a first series of elongated rigid foam plastic board-like core members arranged in spaced side-by-side relationship in juxtaposition with the inside surface of one of said panels and a second series of like core members arranged in a similar pattern in juxtaposition with the inside surface of the other of said panels. The first series of core members being staggered with respect to the second series of core members and overlapping therewith along the side edges of the core members to define staggered air passages.

The invention will be more clearly understood after reference to the following detailed specification read in conjunction with the drawings wherein:

FIGURE 1 is a partially sectioned pictorial view of a wall panel unit constructed according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIGURE 2 is a side view of a wall panel unit illustrating the manner in which the panel is mounted in its required location.

FIGURE 3 is a view similar to FIGURE 2 showing the wall panel in its final location.

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With reference to the drawings the reference numeral 10 refers generally to a wall panel unit or curtain wall unit according to an embodiment of the present invention.

The wall panel unit includes a first panel 12, a second panel 14 and a core structure generally indicated by the reference numeral 16.

The outer panels 12 and 14 can be manufactured of any rigid sheet material. The material selected depends on the end use of the panel unit. As the panel unit can be used as exterior wall members, the panels 12 and 14 will be formed of a weather-resistant material although it will be understood that in this case only the outer panel which is actually exposed to the weather need be of the latter type of material. Material such as gypsum board of the type commonly known as gyprock has been found to be particularly suitable panel material. The panels 12 and 14 may be manufactured in a work shop to the required dimensions while the dimensional tolerances are closely controlled.

The core 16 includes a first series of elongated spacer members 18 and 18:: which are adhesively connected to the first panel 12 and are arranged at longitudinally spaced apart positions to provide longitudinally extending air spaces 20. A second series of spacer members 18a and 18b are adhesively connected to the panel 14 and are arranged at spaced apart positions to provide longitudinally extending spacers 22. The members 18 and 18a are staggered relative to one another and overlap adjacent their longitudinal edges such that the air spaces 20 and 22 have a depth equal to the thickness of the members 18 and 18a respectively and do not extend directly from the first panel to the second panel. The air spaces 20 and 22 provide raceways through which electrical wiring may conveniently run to any required outlet. The air spaces and the insulating spacer member provide a sound insulating structure.

The members 18, 18a, 18b and 18c are preferably made from a non-combustible heat and cold insulating foam glass or rigid foam plastic material such as polystyrene or urethane. A preferred polystyrene foam is manufactured by Dow Chemical of Canada Limited and identified by the trademark Styrospan.

At one longitudinal edge of the panel unit the core structure extends outwardly from thelongitudina-l edges of the panels 12 and 14 to provide a longitudinally extend- 1ng tenon 24 which is formed by the combination of members 18 and 18b as shown in FIGURE 1. It will be noted that the space 20 adjacent the tenon is smaller than the other spaces in order to permit the member 18b to be rigidly connected to the panel 14 to form the rigid tenon 24. The opposite longitudinal edge of the panel unit is formed with the edges of the panels 12 and 14 extending outwardly beyond the longitudinal edge of the core to define a substantially U-shaped channel 26. It will be noted that a narrow member is used in the area of the channel 26 to provide a continuous base for the channel and to provide strength at the edge of the panel unit. By means of this construction a continuous partition comprisr ing a plurality of panel units can be assembled by interlocking the tenons 24 of one panel with the slot 26 of an adjacent panel unit. The tenons 24 provide insulation in the area of the joint.

The upper horizontal edge of the panel unit is constructed with the edges of the panels 12 and 14 extending above the upper horizontal edges of the core 16 to define a substantially U-shaped channel 28 adapted to cooperate with suitable mounting means as will be described hereinafter. At the lower horizontal edge of the panel unit the lower edge of the panel .12 extends only slightly beyond the lower edge of the core 16 while the panel 14 extends a substantial distance beyond the lower edge of the core 16 to provide a lip 28a which co-operates with a suitable mounting means as will be described hereinbelow.

The panel unit of the invention is installed when used as an interior partition member in the following described manner.

Referring to FIGURES 2 and 3 of the drawings, channel member 30 is rigidly secured to the floor 32 and a channel member 34 is rigidly secured to the ceiling 36 in alignment with the member 30. The member 34 and the floor member 32 have a width adapted to fit Within the U-shaped channel 28 formed at the upper end of the partition.

To locate the panel unit in this required location it is positioned in the manner shown in FIGURE 2 with the channel 28 directed towards the ceiling member 34. The overall length of the panel unit is substantially equal to the height between the floor and the ceiling and consequently the panel unit is initially inclined to permit the channel 28 to receive the ceiling member 34. As the ceiling member 34 enters the channel 28 the lower end of the panel unit is moved towards the vertical position and approaches the floor member 30. The lip 28a of the second panel 14 contacts one surface of the floor member 30 when the panel unit reaches its required location. When the panel unit is in this position an insulating spacer block 38 is positioned against the free faces of the floor member to provide a surface flush with the outer surface of the panel 12.

Suitable base board trim 40 is adhesively connected to the lower end of the panel unit to secure the panel unit in its required location and to add the required finished appearance to the installation.

In the initial assembly of the panel unit the members 18 are adhesively connected to the panel 12 and the members 18a are adhesively connected to the panel 14. The members 18, 18a, 18b and 180 are adhesively connected to one another in the area of the overlap to complete the pre-assembled panel unit. The base board trim is adhesively connected to the panel unit to complete the installation of the panel unit. A suitable adhesive used in all of the adhesion areas should have high strength and heat resistant characteristics and should preferably be specifically designed for bonding plastic foam and the like. A suitable adhesive for gluing polystyrene foam to gypsum board is a resin glue manufactured by Pittsburgh Plate Glass Company and identified by the trade mark Bondmaster K727.

It will be apparent from the aforegoing that the installation of the panel units according to the present invention is extremely simple and does not require expensive skilled labour. Furthermore the use of the materials described above provides a relatively light weight panel unit which can be very easily handled during the installation operation.

I claim:

1. A pre-assembled wall unit for buildings comprising, a sandwich construction of a pair of spaced wall board panels and an inner core, said core being formed of a first series of elongated rigid heat insulating board-like core members arranged in spaced side-by-side relationship in juxtaposition with the inside surface of one of said panels and a second series of like core members arranged in similar pattern in juxtaposition with the inside surface of one of said panels and a second series of like core members arranged in similar pattern in juxtaposition with the inside surface of said second panel, said first series core members being staggered with respect to said second series core members and overlapped therewith along the side edges of the core members to define staggered air spaces, said unit having four marginal edges, a first of said marginal edges being formed with said core extending outwardly therefrom to form a tenon, a second of said marginal edges, opposite said first marginal edge, being formed with said pair of spaced wall board panels extending outwardly beyond said core to form a groove adapted to receive a tenon of a further unit, a third marginal edge, extending between said first and second edges, being formed with said pair of spaced wall board panels extending outwardly beyond said core to form a mounting groove adapted to cooperate with suitable mounting means in use, a fourth marginal edge, opposite said third edge, formed with one edge of one of said spaced wall board panels extending outwardly beyond the opposed edge of the opposite panel and beyond the edge of the core member to form a lip adapted to cooperate with suitable mounting means in use.

2. The pre-assembled wall unit of claim 1 wherein said core members are made from a foam plastic material.

3. The pre-assem-bled Wall unit of claim 2 wherein said foam plastic material is polystyrene foam.

4. The pro-assembled wall unit of claim 1 wherein said core members are made from foam glass material.

5. The pre-assembled wall unit of claim 1 wherein said spaced wall board panels are made from gypsum board.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,426,802 9/ 1947 Wachsman. 2,884,779 5/1959 Buergin 52--241 X FOREIGN PATENTS 157,597 1921 Great Britain.

54,188 1934 Norway. 494,187 1950 Belgium.

OTHER REFERENCES House and Home: January 1960, pp. 157, 52-309.

JOHN E. MURTAGH, Primary Examiner.

US. Cl. X.R, 52-441, 593, 615 

1. A PRE-ASSEMBLE WALL UNIT FOR BUILDINGS COMPRISING, A SANDWICH CONSTRUCTION OF A PAIR OF SPACED WALL BOARD PANELS AND AN INNER CORE, SAID CORE BEING FORMED OF A FIRST SERIES OF ELONGATED RIGID HEAT INSULATING BOARD-LIKE CORE MEMBERS ARRANGED IN SPACED SIDE-BY-SIDE RELATIONSHIP IN JUXTAPOSITION WITH THE INSIDE SURFACE OF ONE OF SAID PANELS AND A SECOND SERIED OF LIKE CORE MEMBERS ARRANGED IN SIMILAR PATTERN IN JUXTAPOSITION WITH THE INSIDE SURFACE OF ONE SAID PANELS AND A SECOND SERIES OF LIKE CORE MEMBERS ARRANGED IN SIMILAR PATTERN IN JUXTAPOSITION WITH THE INSIDE SURFACE OF SAID SECOND PANEL, SAID FIRST SERIES CORE MEMBERS BEING STAGGERED WITH RESPECT TO SAID SECOND SERIES EDGES OF THE CORE MEMBERS TO THEREWITH ALONG THE SIDE EDGES OF THE CORE MEMBERS TO DEFINE STAGGERED AIR SPACES, SAID UNIT HAVING FOUR MARGINAL EDGES, A FIRST OF SAID MARGINAL EDGES BEING FORMED WITH SAID CORE EXTENDING OUTWARDLY THEREFROM TO FORM A TENON, A SECOND OF SAID MARGINAL EDGES, OPPOSITE SAID FIRST MARGINAL EDGE, BEING FORMED WITH SAID PAIR OF SPACED WALL BOARD PANELS EXTENDING OUTWARDLY BEYOND SAID CORE TO FORM A GROOVE ADAPTED TO RECEIVE A TENON OF A FURTHER UNIT, A THIRD MARGINAL EDGE, EXTENDING BETWEEN SAID FIRST AND SECOND EDGES, BEING FORMED WITH SAID PAIR OF SPACED WALL BOARD PANELS EXTENDING OUTWARDLY BEYOND SAID CORE TO FORM A MOUNTING GROOVE ADAPTED TO COOPERATE WITH SUITABLE MOUNTING MEANS IN USE, A FOURTH MARGINAL EDGE, OPPOSITE SAID THIRD EDGE, FORMED WITH ONE EDGE OF ONE OF SAID SPACED WALL BOARD PANELS EXTENDING OUTWARDLY BEYOND THE OPPOSED EDGE OF THE OPPOSITE PANEL AND BEYOND THE EDGE OF THE CORE MEMBER TO FORM A LIP ADAPTED TO COOPERATE WITH SUITABLE MOUNTING MEANS IN USE. 